Comments on: The Business of CSR http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/ A blog about Corporate Social Responsibility Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:32:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Tim Johnson http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-22 Tim Johnson Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:12:45 +0000 http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-22 Green is the new red white and blue. I've been saying that for a while and I just saw it on a magazine. Budgets for CSR are great, but solid recycling programs can help companies get started in a "revenue neutral" way. For example, a surprising amount of businesses can generate revenue doing cardboard recycling ($150+ per ton currently) and <a href="”http://www.distributioncenterrecycling.com”" rel="nofollow">plastics recycling</a> as well. These programs can pay for their waste management program and provide a surplus. The big win of course is in good PR and brand equity. Green and CSR are hard to translate into shareholder value. Green is the new red white and blue. I’ve been saying that for a while and I just saw it on a magazine. Budgets for CSR are great, but solid recycling programs can help companies get started in a “revenue neutral” way. For example, a surprising amount of businesses can generate revenue doing cardboard recycling ($150+ per ton currently) and
plastics recycling as well. These programs can pay for their waste management program and provide a surplus. The big win of course is in good PR and brand equity. Green and CSR are hard to translate into shareholder value.

]]> By: jppfrank http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-14 jppfrank Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:39:53 +0000 http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-14 Thanks for your comments. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on CSR and the software industry, and Lawson specifically, in an upcoming post. You'll never hear an executive from Lawson make a comment like, "There are only so many things we can do as we don't make the things that use the power." Of course, that's the now somewhat infamous response Oracle president Charles Phillips gave in a recent press conference when asked about what the Oracle was doing to limit the environmental footprint of its products (http://www.businessgreen.com/2007/08/sorry-oracle-gr.html). Sorry, I couldn't help poking a little fun at our mutual competitor. At Lawson, we know our industry and our company has sustainability responsibilities and we're working on them. Jeff Thanks for your comments. I’d be happy to share my thoughts on CSR and the software industry, and Lawson specifically, in an upcoming post. You’ll never hear an executive from Lawson make a comment like, “There are only so many things we can do as we don’t make the things that use the power.” Of course, that’s the now somewhat infamous response Oracle president Charles Phillips gave in a recent press conference when asked about what the Oracle was doing to limit the environmental footprint of its products (http://www.businessgreen.com/2007/08/sorry-oracle-gr.html). Sorry, I couldn’t help poking a little fun at our mutual competitor. At Lawson, we know our industry and our company has sustainability responsibilities and we’re working on them.
Jeff

]]> By: James Farrar http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-13 James Farrar Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:25:44 +0000 http://franklycsr.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/the-business-of-csr/#comment-13 Hi Jeff Great to see you out here blogging on this important topic. I think the really common issues critical to overall CSR success are stakeholder engagement, materiality assessment and assurance. Management must establish clearly that the CSR strategy is addressing the right issues and the stakeholders have to be assured of such by the CSR report. This whole process is iterative and takes time, patience and lot's of engagement and it rarely matches the business cycle. CSR managed well really is critical to the success of the overall governance, risk and compliance management programme. I look forward to your coming series on this topic but I would also be really interested also to hear more about Lawson's own CSR programme and your experience there over the years -- what works, what does not, your own voluntary compliance commitments etc. - what you think the big sustainability issues are for the software industry, who the stakeholders are and how to manage their concerns. Congratulations on your blog. I think it is really, really important that we in the software industry really start to engage on CSR both as product innovators and practitioners. Cheers James Hi Jeff

Great to see you out here blogging on this important topic.

I think the really common issues critical to overall CSR success are stakeholder engagement, materiality assessment and assurance. Management must establish clearly that the CSR strategy is addressing the right issues and the stakeholders have to be assured of such by the CSR report. This whole process is iterative and takes time, patience and lot’s of engagement and it rarely matches the business cycle. CSR managed well really is critical to the success of the overall governance, risk and compliance management programme.

I look forward to your coming series on this topic but I would also be really interested also to hear more about Lawson’s own CSR programme and your experience there over the years — what works, what does not, your own voluntary compliance commitments etc. - what you think the big sustainability issues are for the software industry, who the stakeholders are and how to manage their concerns.

Congratulations on your blog. I think it is really, really important that we in the software industry really start to engage on CSR both as product innovators and practitioners.

Cheers
James

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